Four dead in shooting at school in Canada: Prime minister

Four people are dead and others are injured after a shooting in Saskatchewan, Canada, that included gunfire at a high school, police and a witness said. A suspect is in custody, police said.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau earlier told reporters that five were killed. A male was arrested outside Dene High School in La Loche after the shooting and a firearm was recovered, police said.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Chief Superintendent Maureen Levy blamed the earlier report of five deaths on a developing situation.

Police were called shortly after 1 p.m. local time on a report of a person firing a gun, she said, and police responded to La Loche Community School, which is located at the high school.

A student who was at the school when gunfire erupted described running for safety.

“I was walking down the hallway and the first shots goes off. Then, they’re saying run,” Noel Desjarlais-Thomas, a 10th-grade student at the school, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation program ”As It Happens.”

“Then I started running and then there was about six shots,” Desjarlais-Thomas said.

A male suspect was taken into custody outside the school at 1:47 p.m. and a firearm was recovered, Levy said.

Investigators are at two locations — the school and another address — but Remy wouldn’t provide details about the second location, or say whether anyone was shot there. No names or ages were released.

“We have two active investigations ongoing,” Levy told reporters.

Trudeau called the shooting “every parent’s worst nightmare.”

“On this sad day the whole country grieves with the people of La Loche and of Saskatchewan,” he said.

Our country’s heart is breaking. We grieve with - and stand with - the people of La Loche today. Full statement: https://t.co/tWQAaewlX1

More details were not immediately available. The school has students from grades 7 through 12.

“Words cannot express my shock and sorrow at the horrific events today in La Loche,” Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall said in a statement. “My thoughts and prayers are with all the victims, their families and friends and all the people of the community.”